Boris Johnson ambushes Nick Clegg on radio - video

Mayor demands to know when ministers are going to stop using 'posh limos' to get round London

BORIS JOHNSON has ruffled the feathers of the coalition government by hijacking deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's phone-in show on London radio to demand that ministers get out of their "posh limos" and start using the Tube like other commuters.

Announcing himself as 'Boris from Islington' the London Mayor scolded Clegg over ministers' use of "chauffeur-driven limousines paid for by the taxpayer" in the same week that Welsh Secretary David Jones was photographed making the 100-yard trip from his office in Whitehall to Downing Street by car.

"When are you going to get all those government ministers out of their posh limos and onto public transport like everybody else?" demanded Johnson.

He asked how ministers could be expected to support infrastructure spending in the capital when they were happy to use official cars. The mayor signed off by saying: "Nick - get them out of their limos. Boris. Over and out."

Clegg instantly recognised BoJo's voice but seemed put out when he was told by his LBC co-host, Nick Ferrari, that the mayor was not actually on the other end of the phone but had pre-recorded the message. "Easy for him, isn't it?" Clegg responded.

The Lib Dem leader said the coalition had cut the amount of money spent on ministerial cars by 70 per cent, and revealed that he was travelling to Leeds by train this very afternoon.

Clegg also made the point that the government had offered billions of pounds for infrastructure projects in London and suggested that the mayor got out of his limo and took advantage of the money.